“Well, I tell you what!” exclaimed the young fellow, “we won't give in to him until we have to. Of course, if you refuse to sign a deed he can go to chancery and in the end you will have to pay the costs of the action. “But perhaps, even at that, it might be well to hold him off until you have got the present crop out of the ground.” “Oh, I won't go to law,” said Mrs. Atterson, decidedly. “No good ever come of that.” After a time Mr. Strickland invited them both into his private office. The attorney spoke quietly of other matters while they waited for Pepper. But the real estate man did not appear. By and by Mr. Strickland's clerk came back with the report that Pepper had been called away suddenly on important business. “They tell me he went Saturday,” said the clerk. “He may not be back for a week. But he said he was going to buy the Atterson place when he returned--he's told several people around town so.” “Ah!” said Mr. Strickland, slowly. “Then he has left that threat hanging, like the Sword of Damocles--over Mrs. Atterson's head?” “I don't know nothin' about that sword, Mr. Strickland, nor no other sword, 'cept a rusty one that my father carried when he was a hoss-sodger in the Rebellion,” declared Mother Atterson, nervously. “But if that Pepper man's got one belonging to Mr. Damocles, I shouldn't be at all surprised. That Pepper looked to me like a man that would take anything he could lay his hands on--if he warn't watched!” “Which is a true and just interpretation of Pepper's character, I believe,” observed the lawyer, smiling. “And we've got to give up the farm at his say-so--at any time?” demanded the old lady. “If his option is good,” said Mr. Strickland. “But I want to see the paper--and I can assure you, Mrs. Atterson, that I shall subject it to the closest possible scrutiny. “There is a possibility that Pepper's option may be questioned before the courts. Do not build too many hopes on this,” he added, quickly, seeing the old lady's face light up. “You have a very good champion in this young man,” and the lawyer nodded at Hiram. “He suspected all was not right with the option and he has dug up the fact that the witness to your uncle's signature, and the man before whom the paper was attested, both believed the option was for a short time. “Caleb Schell's book shows that it was for thirty days. Uncle Jeptha undoubtedly thought it was for that length of time and therefore the option expired several days before he died. “Mr. Pepper may have fallen under temptation. He considered heretofore, like everybody else, that the railroad would pass us by in this section. Pepper gambled twenty dollars on its coming along the boundary of the Atterson farm--between you and Darrell's tract--and thought he had lost.